Atop the World's Tallest Trees

Richard Preston is best known for his book The Hot Zone, a thriller about the Ebola virus. But while he's not writing, Preston has a hobby: he climbs some of the largest trees in the world -- redwoods ranging up to 38 stories tall, thirty feet in diameter, and over 2,000 years old. Now that's a tree.

Preston gave a TED Talk last year explaining the history of these trees, and what it's like to climb them. It's a fascinating look at another kind of life, that exists in a completely different timescale. Have a look:

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DID YOU KNOW? Marlon Brando hated memorizing lines so much that he posted cue cards everywhere to help him get through scenes.
He even asked for lines to be written on an actress's posterior. (That request was denied.)